Lost: One Djinn
by Pianoplunkster
Summary: I really do suck at descriptions. Influenced by Aladdin and other 1001 Arabian Nights stories, although the storyline is my own. He was a djinn 106 years too late, and he has a past that's slowly catching up. Rated T just in case, for whatever may follow.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the ideas I got from Aladdin or the _Rose of the Prophet_ series. The story, however, is my own. (hugs)**

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_Every djinn that decides to cross over to the mortal realms is bound by the Eight. Djinn_

-Are forbidden to kill humans.

-Are unable to touch anyone other than their masters.

-Must remain in the mortal realms for at least one hundred years and, if they decide to cross back over to the immortal realms, must remain there for one hundred years. Djinn may not shuttle back and forth in between the two at will.

-May not enter another djinn's dwelling without permission.

-Are unable to touch cold iron.

-Must be bound to an object of the mortal realms in order to remain in the mortal realms.

-Must obey the holder of the objects they are bound to, no matter who—or what—the holder is.

-Must follow the Law of Equal Exchange: Nothing may be created out of thin air. It must be taken from elsewhere.

_**-From the notebook of an apprentice magus.**_

There is, however, a twelve-hour leeway for any djinn whose objects are destroyed.

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_It is said that the flapping of a butterfly's wings may cause a hurricane at the other end of the world... see how one man's impulsive decision ignited a chain of events that spanned generations..._

**The Bagrah Majestic hotel, year 1900, Amir Province**

Sadi cautiously stuck his head out of the doorway of the hotel room and instantly whipped it back in when a stray bullet whistled past, shattering part of the door frame in an explosion of chips of wood that pelted his face. He winced, wiping away a thin trail of blood from his cheek. Djinn do not have corporeal bodies, feel nothing, don't even bleed, but Sadi had lived for so long among humans that he had begun sharing some of their qualities, both physical and otherwise.

"What's the situation out there, Sadi?" his master Khajal asked calmly, twisting a gold-and-jade pendant on a chain in his hands. "How long will you be able to keep them out of here?"

"Not long, _ziri_," Sadi confessed, wiping sweat from his brow. "Their djinn is much older and more experienced than I, and has the aid of twenty men as well, all spellcasters." He hesitated, and then began, "_Ziri_, I don't want to go back. You are a much kinder master, and if... something happens to you, I will be in his hands once more. I spoke to you about breaking the pendant..."

"I won't do it!" Khajal slammed his fist down upon the desk. "It took me too much trouble and careful planning to give it all up now. Besides, if I send you back to the immortal realms, you won't be able to come back for one hundred years, and you'll have to find another object to be bound to. Do you _really_ want to be the way you were before in the Immortal Realms? Joyless? Formless? A mere shade flickering through the mists?" When Sadi flushed, Khajal smiled. "I didn't think so. It wouldn't be fair to you, Sadi. You've spent too much time among us mortals to go back to that kind of life."

Sadi shook his head at his master's stubbornness. "Your daughter's birthday is in two days. If you do not send me away, they will kill you."

"If I _do_ send you away, they'll _still_ kill me, and then summon you again. They have twelve hours before the one-hundred-year rule goes into effect, plenty of time to bind you to something else." He sighed. "No, I've made my decision." He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin, dotted with stubble, his dark brow furrowed as he absentmindedly rubbed the pendant between his fingers, staring sightlessly at the portrait of his wife and child propped up on the hotel desk. "I'm going to seal you away inside the necklace, Sadi. No, don't thank me yet. That's not the difficult part. I need to figure out a key that only Aleesha would know, just in case your necklace gets diverted when I send it by the Channels. After all, it's hard to get things to the exact right place; that's why most people prefer to have professionals do it." A boom sounded outside the halls, much closer this time, and someone two doors down screamed. His shield had obviously been worn down by the superior numbers, because now the man and the djinn could hear clearly what went on inside his room, and both winced. Khajal's bit his lip as his face whitened and he cursed silently. "I don't have enough time. I'll have to wing it. Sadi, get in the pendant. _Now._"

The djinn anchored the shield he'd been maintaining in place, then bowed to Khajal respectfully. "You have not been my master long, _ziri_, but out of all the masters I've ever had..." he smiled. "You've been the most interesting. I—I will give your love to Aleesha and Shari. Good luck." He suddenly flung his arms around Khajal's neck for a moment, then backed away and vanished into the pendant abruptly, but not before Khajal noticed the djinn's furious blush at his momentary weakness. Chuckling quietly, he fished around in his desk and finally found a safety pin, which he sharpened magically and used to scratch a sigil into the pendant so that it wouldn't get twisted and warped by its journey through the Channels.

The defensive shield gave a loud _Dong!_ as various spells began bouncing off of it. Sadi's shield absorbed most of them, but its power flickered like a guttering candle flame, and its opaqueness fluttered and Khajal caught an swift glance of the men outside. They were dressed as followers of the heathen god Kraal, but on some, their garments had ripped and beneath it were badges with a crest that he knew only all too well. Frantically he tore a strip of paper from one of his wife's letters, dashed something down, and wrapped it around the pendant. He sighed fatalistically, closed his eyes, and grasped the fragile thread that he'd established in his hotel room two days ago. _Re karah an shibe..._

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Outside, the men stopped their hammering at the shield as they felt the whispers of a hot wind building along the corridors, and they hastily cleared the hallway, taking refuge in other hotel rooms. The wind wound in and out of all the hotel rooms it passed, but none of them contained what it sought, and it swept onward, building up momentum until it finally reached the last room with a shield still standing. It slammed full-blast into the shield, which splintered as if it had been made out of spun sugar instead of a djinn's magic, and instantly picked up anything, everything it could and hurled it at the glowing man, bed sheets, pottery, soaps, anything it could lift, trying to distract him and prevent him from completing the spell. Khajal almost faltered when he heard the thump of heavy-shod boots on the floor, but finally he smiled and opened his eyes.

The men found Khajal as easy an opponent as the other hotel guests had been. Weakened by the sealing and transportation spells, he fell without a fight, clutching a photograph to his chest but smiling all the same. And the angry shrieking of the wind informed the men that the djinn's master would be displeased; they had still failed.

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**The city of Memar, Hassan Province**

Aleesha Darmani bolted upright in bed, clutching at her chest and sobbing softly. She still heard the echoes of her husband's final words reverberating in her mind... _"I'm sorry... "_

Glancing instinctively at the empty place beside her, Aleesha gave a start.

On the pillow lay a jade-and-gold necklace, resting on top of a scrap of paper.

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**I promise to get the next chapter up soon... I am writing it as you read this, I assure you. No, I won't abandon it like I did my other two stories... nope... (sweat)**

**But seriously. I am sooo totally psyched about this story. Totally!**

**It _might_ contain some yaoi... possibly... not quite sure yet. If you think it should let me know... in a _review_ (hint hint). If you just want to review for the sake of reviewing, that's okay too **

**Err... I think that's it for now. So, ciao!**


	2. Chapter 1: The Summoning

**I said I would update soon, didn't I?**

**Anyways, this is the _real_ Chapter numero uno. Enjoy!**

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**The city of Dewar, year 2006, Hassan Province**

There is a point in every teenager's life that he (or, in this case, she) stupidly decides to summon a _kawi_ without adult supervision. Call it youthful arrogance, a chemical balance in a not-yet-fully-developed brain, or maybe just sheer stupidity. After all, out of the five percent that actually manage to _summon_ the _kawi_ and not just singe the carpet, only twenty percent survive the encounter with an intact brain and/or body.

The _kawi_ of the world of Bashir is a force to be reckoned with, a few ranks below the djinn on the immortal food chain but more dangerous due to the fact that it is not bound by the mortal constraints of something like the djinn's material residence. And the most dangerous part is the voice; until it is properly held under an oath of obedience to the summoner, the _kawi_ can persuade you to break the iron ring that surrounds it and enable it to wreak havoc on the mortal world; to sign a contract with it that will put your very soul at stake; or even to slit your own throat, if it's in a particularly nasty or impatient mood.

But the profound danger that this ritual poses to amateurs hasn't stopped millions of apprentice mages from trying their hand at calling upon the creatures of the deep, nor the how-to section of every literary stall in the _bazaars_ from including numerous books that have at the very least a chapter on this particular category.

Alarda Khartani had been preparing for this particular summoning for _weeks_, ever since she'd inherited the necklace from her mother for her eighteenth birthday, along with the story that had been handed down all the way from her great-grandmother Shari. The tale had been garbled by generations of oral recitation, each woman putting it into her own words as she recited it to her daughter, sort of like a stretched-out game of Telephone. However, the gist of it was this:

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_Your great-great-grandfather, Khajal Darmani, bought the necklace for his wife in a Bagrahn bazaar. But the night that he was to return home, terrorists from some desert cult broke into the hotel and massacred and looted most of the guests on the first two floors, including Khajal. Nobody had ever found the murderers, despite numerous scrying attempts by some of the province's best mages. However, as we now know due to modern spells and machines, there was something about this necklace that made Khajal determined that the terrorists would not have it. What was it? Sadly, there's only so much that both magic and machinery can do. We've never been able to figure it out, in the one hundred and six years that it's been in the family, because Khajal put a seal on it._

_Anyways, he sent it via the _Gatami_, or the Channels, as it was called in the old days of occupation, back to Aleesha, with a note that had obviously been hastily dashed out: "It will bring you fortune, if you summon it. I love you both."_

_Aleesha never wore the necklace, but she gave it to Shari on her eighteenth birthday, as well as the story of its origin. And it has been in the family ever since._

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Alarda knew that no one in the family had ever figured out the nature of the magic in the necklace because none of the recipients had the heart, brains, or guts to find out. There were only three reasons why there would be a seal on the necklace: a curse, a _kawi_, or a tracking spell. Alarda had ruled out the tracking spell because, first of all, a tracking spell was something that rich people put on their jewelry in case of burglary, and she refused to believe that her great-great-grandfather was a jewel thief; and that, if he had been, that he would have been stupid enough to leave the spell on the necklace at all. If it had been a curse, why would Khajal have sent it to his wife? That only left the _kawi_. Her assumption was further supported by the fact that he had written in the note, _"It will bring you fortune, **if you summon it.**" _

Well, that was exactly what Alarda was about to do.

She felt a tiny bit guilty about risking such a valuable possession; it was not only an antique, it was part of the family _tradition_, along with the feasts that were held at the main family's compound every full moon, the passing-down of the family stories such as Khajal's, and the expectation of every child of the Khartani family to know his or her forebears. But where else would she find such a golden opportunity to summon a _kawi_?

Tossing her thick black braid over her shoulder, she turned back to the old, cracked volume resting on her desk. The illustration provided wouldn't be very helpful, because _kawi_, like any other being of the Immortal Realms, are formless until they enter the mortal realms; ergo, it could choose any shape it desired. But she had done everything else described in the book to the letter; she had prepared the circle of iron (she had had to take her time with this part, slipping into her older brother's room whenever he was out and taking just a few pinches of iron dust from his mage kit at a time; he hadn't noticed that it had been disappearing faster than usual and so she had gotten away with it), scattered the pieces of the sacrificial animal (a goat from the butcher's, although she was supposed to kill it herself. But what would the demon care? A goat was a goat.), the eight candles placed in the eight directions of the compass, and finally, the pendant in the center of the circle.

The final part was the most difficult, and one that she _still_ hadn't quite figured out: the _kawi's_ name. For the solution, she had turned once again to Khajal's letter; the name would have something to do with fortune, she was quite sure. Why else would he write such a weird and pointless sentence?

Everything was now in place, and Alarda began the chant. "Oh, immortal creature of the deeps (it wasn't wise to call a _kawi_ a _kawi_, as the name had a negative connotation), I conjure you from your mortal prison to appear before me. I call upon thee..." she hesitated. "_Farhaad._"

Nothing. She blew out a breath of frustration. So it wasn't the magical term for "fortune". Maybe "wealth". "_Mahdi._" No response. She could have screamed. "_Haal_ (money)! _Gamen _(cash)!"

But wait. She was thinking too narrowly. "Fortune" didn't necessarily just mean money, did it? It could also mean... "_Sadi_!"

Luck.

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It had been almost as unbearable for Sadi trapped inside the ring as it would have been had he been forced to return to the immortal planes. At least, as an immortal, he would have soon lost all concept of time and so would have passed the time with relative eases. He had long ago given up keeping track of the date or even the year, unable to see outside the pendant into the world beyond. Here, stuck on Bashir, he was forced to wait, wearing holes in his elaborate rugs with pacing, with nothing more entertaining to do than decorate and re-decorate his home, fling darts in patterns that left increasingly elaborate rows of holes in the wall, and practice what he would say to his new master or mistress when he was released.

Of course, he could always just wait for the spell to lose its potency. It had, over the period of time that he had remained in the pendant, grown decidedly less resilient to his probing, especially after some sort of beam that was decidedly not magical had passed through not just the pendant itself, but Sadi's home and Sadi himself, and had left him feeling weak and shivery for a couple of hours. Yes, he supposed that he could break the seal if he truly wanted to. "But what is the point, if my home has fallen into strange hands?" he had asked himself many a time. And so he continued to wait.

Until he heard, along with a garble of other foreign words, his name. He was summoned.

**Yes, I'm stopping now. I know, I'm mean, but hey, this was already more than I was intending to write anyways. And I'm typing up the next chapter already because with school starting in less than a week, I dunno how much I'll be able to do. **

**So long for now. And have a nice day.**


	3. Chapter 2: The zara

As soon as Alarda had uttered that final word, the pendant shook slightly in the center of the ring, and a string of glowing words fluttered away from the pendant and hit the invisible wall that the iron ring had erected, disappearing with a soft _pop_. She wiped her brow, damp with sweat from the heat of the candles and the anxiety she'd experienced when the spell hadn't worked, sighing with relief. She'd broken the seal. And...

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Sadi unfurled himself slowly from the pendant, a lazy curl of purplish smoke that drifted downwards to the carpet and solidified into legs, torso, arms, and last, the head. He had contemplated a more impressive entry into the mortal world during the long hours of solitude; maybe a few bangs, or an illusion to suggest that the room was on fire or to make him appear bigger and more impressive, but he didn't want to be whooshed back to the Immortal realms on accident because he was mistaken for a demon or something like that...

Sadi had no idea what sort of being his new master or mistress would prefer, although he remembered with a wince that a couple of his last few masters had specifically requested that he take on the appearance of a youth, and, that being the form that he was best at creating, he shifted into that body. But he hoped that his new master wouldn't make him wear _quite_ so few clothes. Mistress, he corrected himself, sensing that the shape through the smoke was female, and not quite yet a woman.

Then he noticed that he stood in the center of an iron ring.

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The _kawi_ opened his mouth to speak, but Alarda had been prepared for that, and immediately shut her eyes. All she had to do was keep on talking and block the _kawi's_ voice out of her mind until she'd bound it to serve her purpose.

"Hey—" the _kawi_ began, sounding slightly affronted by the iron circle, but Alarda projected her voice over his and pronounced in a loud voice, "O creature of the immortal realms, you have been summoned thus to fulfill a task I require of thee." _Oh, shit. What do I say next?_ She hadn't really thought of what she was going to say to the creature; she'd just assumed that an impressive speech would just come rolling out of her mouth, the way it always seemed to on the Sunsday primetime flicks and in those autobiographies of the famous magi that her brother pored over obsessively. Damn The Dummy's Guidebook to Summoning, book 1. It had failed to leave out miniscule details like_ that_.

The _kawi_ was trying to talk again, and she interjected desperately, "Silence! You may not speak unless I specify it!"

"But—"

"I told you to shut up!" Ooh. That was bad. Oh well. Just skip to the end part and screw the long, impressive speech.

"Creature of the deeps, I hereby conjure you to serve me unconditionally until I specify otherwise!"

It blinked. "Umm... that's... what I'm here for, isn't it?"

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Sadi was completely and utterly floored.

_What_ in the name of the Eight was going on?

He supposed some sort of ritual would be required to break the seal that Khajal had placed on the pendant. After all, his former master's skills had been formidable and this... girl, if anything, was a rookie. She couldn't be more than fifteen or sixteen, and despite her shockingly masculine appearance—from her pants, made of some blue rough material, to her face, completely devoid of any rouge or kohl as was proper for a young lady of her age—she was, well... _female_, and he'd never met a female magician, in all of the two hundred and seven years he'd spent on Bashir (this didn't include the years spent in the pendant, of course).

But there was no call for the iron ring, or making him swear an oath. It wasn't like he was going to _bite_ her or anything...

He intended to get to the bottom of the matter right away. "Am I allowed to talk now?" the djinn asked in a small voice.

She opened her eyes, blinked, obviously confused, and said hesitantly, "Yes. Go ahead."

He bowed, but when his head started to protrude over the edge of the iron ring, making his hair fizzle, he hastily straightened up and, eyeing the binding circle with distaste, he pronounced, "I am called Sadi in the mortal realms. It is my duty to serve the master—or mistress," he added hastily, "—of the necklace, as is required of every djinn by the Eight..."

His mistress's eyes widened, and as a flush spread across her dusky skin, Sadi gulped. _What did I say wrong?_ "Are you quite all right, _zara_?"

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No, she wasn't all right. Alarda wanted to throttle the _kawi_... no, wait. A...djinn?

"You're lying!" she almost screamed, but he wasn't. He couldn't, inside the circle, even if she'd drawn or cast it wrongly (which she doubted). If the circle had been broken somehow, _that_ would be another story, but no. "I'm a failure," she moaned, kicking the powder of the binding circle so that the djinn would be able to step free of the circle and flinging herself on her bed in a foul humor.

"What do I need a djinn for?" she wailed. "Djinn are for lazy rich girls that live off of being fawned over. Djinn are for _pasha_ snobs who have sad little competitions with other _pasha_ snobs to see how many djinn they can accumulate. Djinn are _ornamental._"

Sadi twitched, but managed not to say anything in response to that little slight. "But..." he protested. "I could... I have lots of domestic skills. I can scry things for you. I can transform things, to a certain extent."

Alarda dismissed his claims with a wave. "Bah! Any high-school girl could do the same. Is that _all_ you can do?"

"No, that's just all I can think of at the moment," he admitted. "I haven't had a chance to practice my skills much, being trapped in the pendant all that time, but I'm sure I would be able to do other things for you. Do you want me to clean up that mess? The goat is starting to drip onto the carpet... what were you going to do, anyways? Summon a _kawi_?" He had meant it as a joke, but the stony look on the girl's face made the grin slide off his face, and he coughed uncomfortably. She drew a symbol on the air impatiently, and the iron powder levitated and poured neatly into a bottle on the floor. She vanished the goat next, sending it to a dustbin a few doors down, and snuffed the candles out with a slight puff of wind. A slight stain remained on the carpet, but out of spite Sadi "forgot" to mention it.

"You see?" she exclaimed angrily, not noticing the stain. "I have no use for you."

The djinn's face crumpled, and Alarda avoided his purple eyes guiltily. Damn him... he seemed so _young_... if he'd been a human, he probably wouldn't have been much older than she, and his ridiculous outdated getup—geez, he looked like something out of a kid's movie, with the pointed slippers, white puffy trousers, and only a blue vest to cover his bare, _very_ muscled chest...—She shook her head. _I'll already be in deep shit for using magic in my room... and if Mami finds out that I've had a _male_ in here..._

"You can stay. For now," she added quickly. "But you don't appear to other humans unless I say you can and you _don't_ do any of my magic for me," she added with a glare. "I have my pride too, you know."

His gratitude was too much for her to bear, and when he tried to kiss her feet she drew back in disgust. "By the Eight, Sadi, you don't have to do that. This is the twenty-first century. Just... get into the necklace."

When he had vanished, she sat down on her bed with a thump, vaguely aware that her mami was coming up the stairs, and arranged the necklace beneath her shirt.

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**School has started once more... Ugggh. Sooo... tired.**

**But thanks for the positive reviews! I'm so glad you guys like this story of mine. **

**Gah... I think I'm having an off day... I am so completely braindead. You guys might have to wait for the next installment for a little while... I have an AP Bio test _and_ an AP Spanish test to study for.**

**But for now, ciao!**


	4. Chapter 3: History Lesson

**Out of curiosity, because somebody mentioned the Bartimaeus Trilogy, I went out this week and read the entire thing.**

**The ending sucked! 0.o ...I'm so depressed now.**

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As soon as Mami opened the door, Alarda immediately smoothed the front of her shirt down a little bit guiltily. She had always sworn that her mother could _smell_ single males in her house all the way from the spice stalls in the bazaar where she worked; never mind that said single male wasn't even _human_.

"Alarda?" her mother inquired, rather suspiciously, as she pushed the door to Alarda's room open and sniffed the air. "Why were you burning candles? It's stifling today. You should open up your windows and let the fresh air in. Kids these days..." she sighed. "Why do you spend all your time inside? You weren't working spells in your room, were you?" Her mother narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"No... No, of course not. I was just reading. And the candles are scented; it soothes me. Really, Mami, you never say these sorts of things to Maudi when you go into his room," she protested.

"Maudi never blackens the curtains with smoke when he's practicing. I had to take them to be cleaned... twice! And what's that stain on the carpet? It wasn't there yesterday."

Alarda flushed. Damn. She hadn't seen that when she'd cleaned. "I don't know, Mami. I'll get it off the carpet before it gets stained permanently."

Mami fluttered her hand. "No, don't bother. Stick to your books. I don't want you to burn a hole through the carpet. I just came to tell you that dinner will be ready in two turns. Oh, and who were you talking to?" she added casually, her eyes flicking to the closet, the dresser, the adjoining bathroom.

Alarda sighed. "I was just reading to myself. Is there anything else you need?" she asked pointedly, feeling sweat trickling down the back of her neck. Her mother hesitated for a moment, then shook her head and left the room.

When Alarda was entirely sure that her mother had gone out of the house once more (she tapped into the protective spells around the frame of the front door to check), she pulled the pendant from beneath her shirt and shook it. "Sadi. Come on out. We need to talk."

Sadi emerged with a soft _pop_, looking slightly ruffled and more than mildly annoyed. "You ruined my furniture arrangement."

During the time that Alarda had been talking with her mother, he had somehow altered his outdated getup to an outfit that could have been an exact match for Alarda's, although altered slightly to fit his male form. Alarda winced.

"Please, at least change the top. I'm not going to have you wearing a shirt that says "Your boyfriend wants me" every single time that I summon you. And can't you make those jeans a _little _less tight? Wait. Hold on a second." She dashed over to her closet and dug through it.

She reemerged triumphantly with a couple of battered magazines and tossed them into the djinn's hands. "There. Try and dress like one of the _males_ in there."

"I humbly beg your pardon, _zara_. I thought that it was the way that all males dressed in this country." The djinn sat down cross-legged on the bed and began to flip through the magazines dubiously. While he did so, Alarda sighed and flopped down into her desk chair, resting her cheek in her palm and studying the djinn with curiosity. "Tell me, Sadi, why were you inside the pendant?"

He looked up, surprised. "I was meant to go to my _ziri _Khajal's wife, Aleesha. It was..." he closed his eyes and thought for a second. "It was... 1900 then. Why? What year is it now?"

Alarda opened her mouth, then closed it. "Sadi..." she informed him gently, "this is the year 2006. You've been inside the pendant for one hundred and six years. A _lot_ has changed since then." She felt like she'd been trying to break a hole in a brick wall with her head. "Put that magazine aside for now. Time to give you a history lesson," she told him firmly.

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Somehow, she managed to rustle up some of her old class notes from five years ago, as well as a couple of rather oversimplified children's books, and set up an impromptu blackboard out of a piece of fabric that she charmed to stiffen.

"Okay, I don't remember everything but the barest details, so you'll just have to bear with me, okay?

"In the early 1900s, this particular section of Bashir was under the tender "protection" of the country that lies far south of us, called Gryfed. You know this? Right. Well, in the 1930s, the various Provinces united against Gryfed, but it didn't work the first time, even though the provinces were by no means backwards; we had the guns, the electricity, the manpower, the Channels, or the _Gatami_, as we now call them. But they had djinn working for them, powerful djinn, even though there weren't that many, and nobody knew enough magic to counter _that_ sort of force.

"However, there's always been at least a little bit of magic floating around... midwives, thieves, shamans, mystics, scholars, and, of course, some people who were just naturally talented."

"Like _ziri_ Khajal," Sadi said softly.

"Right. Well, people began to pool their knowledge, and pass it on to their children. My grandparents' generation. In 1956, things came to a head in the city of Bagrah—" Sadi jerked, "—when there was a massive riot following a demonstration in front of the Gryfed government's headquarters. To this day, we _still_ don't know if it was intentional or not, but the Gryfed Senate was in session, and most of the major powers were there, without their djinn; it was required that djinn be left at home in case rivalry got too serious. Well, the people stormed the headquarters and took everyone inside that building hostage. Not even the police could stop them, what with even the average housewife able to send basic shock spells right back at the caster, with perhaps a vicious jinx mixed in to boot.

"To cut a long story short, after much negotiation, Gryfed slowly pulled out of the provinces; their last soldiers left ten years ago. Some of the families that formerly had a lot of influence during those days still hold sway, but we're back to self-government, liberty, and all that other patriotic shit. The end."


	5. Chapter 4: The Modern World

When Alarda had concluded her lecture, she stood there fidgeting, unsure as to what to do or say. Sadi had said nothing for the past few moments, flipping aimlessly through the pages of the magazine he was browsing, his violet eyes fixed blankly on a spot a few inches above her head.

His entire existence in this modern world was completely and utterly useless. The traditional jobs of a djinn of his level were now as obsolete as his knowledge of Bashir, usurped by electricity and the commoners' magic.

"Tell me," he finally said, his eyes coming back into focus and resting on his _zara_. "What is it you plan to do with me?"

Alarda squirmed uncomfortably, and busied herself with cleaning up the props she'd used for her lecture manually so that she wouldn't have to look at the djinn perched on her bed. "I really don't know," she confessed reluctantly. "If I leave you here, either my mother or my brother will find out about you. My mother would probably put you to use guarding the house, but she'd _incorporate_ your being into the security spells, quite literally. I doubt you want to spend your time on Bashir hovering invisible and incorporeal throughout the house doing a full body scan of every stranger that enters. My brother would most probably blackmail me into allowing you to be used for some of his magical experiments in exchange for his keeping silent about you to Mami. Most probably, you'd be kept in reserve as a sacrifice in case Maudi summoned a particularly strong _kawi_ and wasn't able to control it."

_What kind of family have I gotten myself in with?_ Sadi wondered with increasing horror.

"It would be unfair to force you to remain inside the pendant," Alarda continued, "so I think the best option would be to release you and send you back to the Immortal Realms. After all, the one hundred year rule doesn't apply in this case... We already know that you've been on Bashir for more than one hundred and six years." She finally met his eyes, silently pleading him to agree.

"No." Sadi spoke the single word emphatically, and the air around him crackled slightly. The djinn was bound to obey Alarda, but he was going to make it clear that he would fight this decision until the very end.

Alarda sighed and finished straightening up her pile of notes, flinging them moodily into a desk drawer. She didn't have the heart to force the Sadi against his will, even if it would mean more trouble for her. "At least tell me why," she demanded, facing him with her hands on her hips.

Sadi didn't answer. Instead, he merely went back to flipping through the magazine, and asked in a bored tone, "Why were you trying to summon a _kawi _when you can't even do a simple cleaning spell? I recall you telling me that any high school girl could do what I can do."

"That's completely irrelevant!" Alarda retorted angrily, her face flushed.

Sadi shrugged. "You said you didn't need me because you can do all the spells that I can. I was just curious as to why you didn't clean the spot on the carpet after you cleared away everything else. I assume it caught your mother's attention."

"I _can_ do cleaning spells..." Alarda protested weakly, then admitted, "Okay. I just can't do them _well_. I never bothered to practice them much. So what?"

Sadi rolled his eyes. "Don't you think that they'd be just a _little_ bit useful in concealing your summoning activities from your mother?"

Alarda shrugged. "Not really. She would suspect me anyways, and I don't have the skill to conceal it from _her_..." Her eyes widened as she considered the possibilities of Sadi's unspoken proposal.

"Imagine the things you could do in here if I helped you..." he wheedled, seeing her waver a bit.

---

In the end, Alarda consented to allow Sadi to stay for the time being. "The conditions for you staying are this: you're either in the outside world with me, acting like a human, or you're staying in the pendant. I don't want you being by yourself until I know you can handle yourself without me. And I want you to be knowledgeable in everything modern before I make my final decision. Yes, that means electricity, too." She matched him glare for glare. "Like it or not, it's here to stay and you're going to have to deal with it. Besides, the two go hand in hand in a lot of household appliances, and I'm not going to have you accidentally frying the wireless because you think it's possessed."

"They did just fine without electricity in 1900," he muttered sourly.

"This is 2006. And for the last time, will you _please_ change your attire? You're wearing _girl's_ clothing, pants or no."

Sadi made an impatient gesture with his hand, and the screen tee and flared jeans morphed into a fitted black tank top, a khaki belted vest, and a slim pair of dark wash jeans. "Better?"

Alarda nodded with relief. He looked almost _normal_. "Listen, I've got to go down and eat. After dinner, I'll take you out for a bit, but for now, please get back into the pendant."

For once, the djinn didn't argue. Alarda sighed with relief and touched the pendant. It was slightly warm now; whether Sadi was purposely doing it to remind her that he was there or just because the seal was no longer in place, she couldn't tell.

---

Alarda had figured that the best place to start introducing the djinn to the modern world would be the bazaars; they had already been in existence for hundreds of years when the djinn had last occupied Bashir, so the concept, at least, wouldn't be completely alien to him, even if some of the goods were.

She was relieved to discover that Sadi didn't just look human, he even acted like one. The night was a bit chilly, with a frigid breeze blowing, and Alarda had been worried that the djinn wouldn't realize that normal people would cover up more in weather like this. But as soon as Sadi had materialized out of his pendant (in a conveniently dark alleyway a few blocks from her house) he had shivered and rustled up a dark grey fleecy sweatshirt from somewhere. Then, the two of them set off.

Alarda glanced curiously a couple of times at the djinn as they strode down the dimly lit street. He experienced human sensations such as temperature change. He took on a human form. He talked like a human. He even knew how to _walk_ properly; most djinn preferred to float a couple of inches off the ground instead. He was the most... _normal_ magical being she'd ever encountered.

He wasn't subservient like other djinn, either. While she didn't really mind that, it made her wonder; was that why he'd been sealed away?

---

"Don't let your mouth hang open so far. A foul spirit could get in," Alarda laughed as the two entered the bazaar. "Didn't you ever go on Market Day with your past masters?"

Sadi nodded, his eyes hungrily devouring the sights and sounds that he had not experienced for over one hundred years. The general hustle and bustle had not changed, but the clothes, the products, the sounds... He saw familiar sights such as herbal stands, magical merchandise, livestock pens, but dispersed in between stands with funny cordless phones that you could apparently use in cars and such (_I bet they need a really _long_ wire,_ Sadi thought); booths with electronic devices such as clocks that showed only two numbers at a time instead of the proper twelve; outlandish clothing from places with foreign names like Holista and Airapostar. He became fascinated by some sort of virtual reality game stall that a crowd had gathered around, where somehow two kids were controlling minor spirits—but they weren't spirits, they were... three-dimensional moving pictures?—and engaging them in some sort of battle that would have fooled Sadi into thinking was real had he not felt no traces of life whatsoever emitting from the creatures duking it out in the center of the ring.

"That," Alarda said over his shoulder, "is an example of magic and electricity working in harmony. The electricity provides for most of the elements of the game, but the magic makes it pop out. Come on. I'm going to need you to help me carry some stuff home." She tugged him away towards a stall overflowing with various battered books.

---

"Are you sure it's him?"

"Absolutely. He has not even bothered to change his appearance; maybe he thinks that your family has forgotten about him. But he is still bound to the pendant, as he was back in 1900. If you want to get him back you will have to obtain that first, or somehow convince the girl to free him."

Silence. Then, "Send him a message. I would _hate_ for him to have forgotten the pleasurable time he spent serving the family."


	6. Chapter 5: The Shadows of the Past

**I love you guys.**

**4 review in one chapter. OMG.**

**And almost 200 hits! I feel so loved. **

**I'm glad you like it, and I apologize for the shortness of the chapters. But hey, I update pretty often, right? It's just that I don't like to give _too_ much away in one chapter.**

**And having 2 AP classes is sorta time-consuming, too. **

**Well. Onto Chapter 6.**

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"Why do _I_ have to be the one to carry the biggest books? They're all yours."

Alarda smiled serenely at the djinn. "Because I'm your _zara_ and I say so. Besides, they can't be _that_ heavy for you; I've seen djinn holding up entire buildings at construction sites."

"I've been cooped up for over one hundred years! You can't seriously expect me to be in tip-top condition," grumbled the djinn, but he sighed and did something with his fingers, and the pile of books floated a few centimeters above his hands. He shrugged innocently and pretended that he couldn't see Alarda's furious glance over the pile of books. "Either this or they fall in the dirt. You decide." He let her chew on that and staggered onwards, trying to match her pace as they fought against the rush of the people coming into the bazaars.

Something nagged at him in the very back of his mind as he precariously dodged the passers-by and tried not to mow anybody down.

It was something he recognized, some...one? But that was impossible... it had been so long ago...

---

Sadi and Alarda were passing a kitchenware stall when all Chaos broke loose.

It was like a dust devil, or even a miniature cyclone, but even those wouldn't have been nearly enough to fling the heavy canvas of the stall away and send pots, spatulas, whisks, plates, wineglasses, tongs, carving knives, and even a few people spinning in the general direction of the djinn and his _zara_. The wail of the wind was a shrill scream that carried above the shouts and general babble of the crowd and made Sadi drop the books and fling his arms protectively about Alarda, just as a skillet cracked against the back of his head and a heavy stainless steel frying pan, followed by a butcher knife, thudded into his back.

---

Not only did Sadi display many of the physical and emotional traits of the humans he resembled. He also weighed as much as one.

"Sadi," grumbled Alarda from underneath the djinn, trying to shift him slightly so that his arms weren't so uncomfortably close to the proximity of her chest, "I can't... breathe. Get up...Get... OFF me!" She shoved him aside and scrambled to her feet, then noticed the silent crowd surrounding her, as well as the thin layer of sticky brownish-red liquid on her fingertips. "Oh. _Basha_."

---

"That was quite a message you sent. Was it not, perhaps, somewhat excessive?..."

"A thousand pardons. It's just that I haven't had the chance to do that in _years..._"

A chuckle. "You are forgiven. I think we can safely assume that he got the message."

"I'm quite sure that he did. Now all that remains is to see whether he will respond..."

---

"Somebody call a doctor!"

"It's too late, anyways... nobody could survive a hit like that. What in the name of the Eight was that wind?"

"It wasn't natural... maybe somebody had a grudge. I'm not staying around here..."

Was it at all possible for djinn to _die_? They lived in the _Immortal_ Realms, after all... there had to be some reasons the storytellers had named it that (besides an overwhelming impulse to make it sound romantic)...Oh, how in the name of the Eight was _she_ supposed to know?

Out of pure reflex, Alarda put her fingers to Sadi's neck where the pulse would normally be. But was he really _that_ thorough in creating a human body? She had no way of telling. But there was all that blood...

There was nothing. No beat. Not even the faintest flutter. Alarda felt her heart drop into the soles of her sneakers.

A collective gasp from the crowd. "He's _moving!_"

_Dammit, Sadi!_ Alarda groaned as the djinn sat up and rubbed his head where the pan had beaned him, the knife still drooping out of the back of his grey sweatshirt. There was only one thing to do.

She flung her arms around him and sobbed, "Thank the powers Beyond that you were carrying that bag of chicken blood! I thought for a moment it was real!_ Sadi, you idiot, act human!_" she hissed into his ear. "_You should be _dead_! We have to get out of here. Now._ Are you sure you're okay?" she asked, giving his arm a vicious squeeze.

"Uhh... yeah. Could you help me get this bag off, though? It's starting to drip down my pants..." Sadi fumbled with the ties of the thick canvas bag suddenly slung across his back, concealed from view by the sweatshirt. The crowd muttered and began to disperse back into the general flood of humanity, and in less than three minutes the two were (relatively, if you didn't count the thousands of people surrounding them) alone.

Alarda pulled the knife out, still dripping, and let it drop to the ground with a sigh. "That was really weird. I hope it wasn't my brother's idea of a joke, gone horribly wrong. Although I must say that if that was a _kawi_, it was a _lot_ stronger than the ones he usually summons..."

Sadi opened his mouth to speak, but Alarda jerked her head in a silent, frantic _No!_ at him. "Wait until we get home," she mouthed, and aloud continued, "Let's just gather our stuff up and head back. I'm exhausted..."

Amid the feet of the people passing by lay scattered the remains of Alarda's books, some shredded by the wind, some stained with splashes of blood, some trampled into the dirt by the onlookers, none intact. "Maybe I could get a refund?" she said half-heartedly, and shook her head. "Nah. It's not worth it. Come on, let's just go."

---

"Alarda!"

Despite the fact that Sadi was safely inside the pendant, Alarda nonetheless hastily took it off and shoved it into her pocket. Now that the seal was off, there was no knowing what her family might be able to find out.

She sauntered as casually into the family room as she could, her bloody fingers wrapped around the pendant, shoved as deep into her pocket as she could. "I just got home. What's up?"

Her brother groaned in frustration and flung an empty plastic bottle at her. "You were just at the bazaar! How could you have missed it?" He gestured at the screen of the wireless, where the headline **CHAOS RIPS THROUGH LOCAL MARKET** blazed prominently at the bottom. The reporter had just finished with, "...unknown. We have a clip from the security cameras to show you now..."

_Security... cameras?_ Alarda thought faintly, and barely heard the next part, "...unfortunately some sort of interference, probably caused by whatever did this. All the tapes show is the street before..." a poor-quality clip of the jumble of people that had been at the bazaar flashed, and Alarda noted with profound relief that she was unable to find herself on it, which probably meant that Maudi wouldn't see her, either. Then, like a pot starting to bubble as it began boiling, the crowd began to push, shove, kick, trying to get out of the way of the thing that was coming. Then, the screen went fuzzy, a picture of dancing black and white dots. "...and after," the anchor concluded, and the second clip merely showed people helping the distraught kitchenware merchant erect his tent once more and gather up his fallen goods, only minutes after Alarda and Sadi had made their hasty retreat.

The story concluded, and a commercial for GENIE IN A BOTTLE © (the scent that's guaranteed to get you the man of your dreams) replaced the news. Maudi muted it and glanced up at Alarda, still standing stock-still by the couch. "You _really_ didn't see anything?" he asked, disappointed.

"No!" she said, a little bit more forcefully than necessary, and he surveyed her measuringly with his hazel eyes. "Why did you go to the bazaar, anyways? You didn't buy anything, I see."

"I...I just... the book shop was closed," she concluded lamely, and shut her mouth. "I'm going to go get ready for bed. Is Mami already upstairs?"

"Dunno." The program had come back on air and he was glued to it once more. "She came back from work a little while before you did, so she missed the whole thing."

"Okay. Thanks." She pounded up the stairs and to her room, only taking a quick detour to the washroom to scrub Sadi's blood off her hand. Once the door was safely shut, she dragged her desk in front of it to stall any further intrusions and sealed the doorframe for sound.

Taking the necklace back out of her pocket, she asked rather hesitantly, "Sadi? Are you okay in there?"

No response. "Sadi," Alarda repeated, starting to get pissed off, "We need to talk. Come out of there."

When he reappeared, he had once again regained the outdated attire that he'd worn when he first met her, and he held a glowing hand to a spectacular bump on the back of his head. Alarda was relieved to see that he was no longer bleeding, especially since he was sitting on her bed once more.

"The skillet had iron, although fortunately not pure iron," he explained, to Alarda's inquiring glance. "The knife wound was no problem, but iron leaves its mark, and so my head does not heal as quickly. I will be fine by tomorrow."

"If it didn't hurt you, then why in the name of the Eight was there so much _blood?_ I know I told you to act human, but you didn't have to go that far..." Alarda shuddered.

"It has been acquired over time. A solid form, human mannerisms, blood... Once anything of the Immortal realms spends enough time on other planes it begins to mold itself to its new landscape. It was speculated by scholars of many eons ago that humans were merely immortals that had lost all connection to the other planes."

Alarda nodded. "Fair enough. Okay, next question. Why did that _thing_, whatever it was, target us? It was just too coincidental that you were the only one who truly got nailed."

Sadi paled and shook his head, muttering something inaudible. "Sadi," warned Alarda. "I haven't done anything to you yet, and I really don't want to. Please."

He sighed, looked up at the ceiling as if for inspiration, and groaned, "I can't believe this is happening." He flushed and finally said, "I'll begin by telling you _who_ that thing was.

"My ex-girlfriend."


	7. Chapter 6: Fatima

**Wow, it's been a really long time, hasn't it? It feels good to get back into writing again.** :)

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"It's not funny, dammit!"

Alarda wiped tears from her eyes, still unable to stop shaking with merriment. "I'm sorry. It's just... your ex-girlfriend..." she burst out laughing again. "This has to be the worst thing I've ever heard... What, is she mad because you haven't called her for one hundred and six years? That is a _long_ time to hold a grudge..."

"Will you LISTEN?" Sadi shouted angrily, his face reddening. But when he remembered that he was shouting at the girl who was not only his _zara_, but the girl capable of sending him straight back to the Immortal Realms, his eyes widened and he dropped to the floor, his head bowed. She hadn't chastised him yet, but his behavior today would have thrice gotten him washroom duty with his old masters, and he was no longer with _ziri_ Khajal.

Alarda said disgustedly, "Oh, get up. I'm not going to punish you. Just tell me what in the name of all the _kawi_ in the Other Realms is going on."

Sadi sat cross-legged on the carpet, staring at the floor. "Her name is Fatima, and she was a djinn who worked for the same family that I worked for before I... came to Khajal. She was, in fact, the same djinn who was sent to retrieve my home from Khajal after he'd stolen the necklace out of the family vault in the city apartment. Rather a clever job he made of it, I must say..."

"Whoa, whoa, time out. What exactly do you mean... _stolen?_" Alarda demanded, straightening up indignantly, the honor of her family under attack. "Khajal was no criminal."

Sadi inwardly rolled his eyes, but he kept his tone subservient and replied, "Exactly what it sounds like. Your grandfather was a _commoner_, albeit a marginally wealthy commoner, _zara_, but he would _never_ have been able to gain a djinn the normal way. You were the one who told me that the people weren't able to overthrow the Gryfed the first time because they weren't able to go up against the power of the djinn. Well, why do you think this is so? Every summoning spell that you've ever learned is of Gryfed origin; it was the magic that they specialized in. I'm not saying that the people of the provinces were _weak_; they just didn't have the right skills to counteract the Gryfed when the first soldiers came to the Provinces. Otherwise, there was no way that the Gryfed would have stayed in power that long, outnumbered as they were.

"Djinn such as myself were passed down from generation to generation... I stayed with the Mahjid family for one hundred and twelve years. Fatima had stayed with them for five hundred and eighty." Alarda's dark eyes widened, and she frowned, absorbing this information.

"They must not have liked it when you were taken."

"That's putting it lightly," the djinn said somberly. "I think that they sent their entire force of private thugs to get the necklace back. If they're still hunting for it after all these years, then you will not be safe for long. Fatima will find me."

"So... how'd it work out between you two?" Alarda asked, a little bit too innocently. "What's she like?"

Sadi shuddered. "She's beautiful by human standards, but that's nothing to go by... we can assume any form we wish, even if there is one form in particular that we have an affinity for. She's charming, she's vivacious, she's insanely jealous, and she's a complete..." He hesitated, good breeding battling his desire to finally abuse the other djinn verbally, and settled on, "...witch. With a B."

Alarda snorted. "Then why go out with her? What did you two _do_, anyways?" She grinned. "No, no, don't tell me. I don't know if I _want_ to know the answer to that, judging by the expression on your face. So they're hunting for the necklace. More specifically, for you." She sighed fatalistically, rubbing her forehead. "And I thought the hardest thing I had to look forward to was my demonology test next week."

Sadi shrugged helplessly.

---

Tomorrow Alarda would go back to school, and Sadi wasn't allowed to go with her.

_"Look, I'm sorry, I know you've already spent so much time confined! But I... just need at least one day to myself, okay? I dunno how I'm going to feel, having a male hanging right in between my boobs every day, whether you're inside the pendant or not." She had laughed when he flushed hotly, protesting that he would never... "I'm kidding. But I'm serious about not taking you. Some of the girls there have djinn as well... one of them might recognize you."_

He waited until she was asleep to re-emerge from his pendant, perching moodily on the windowsill and studying his _zara's_ face, the mocking smile smoothed away and the face relaxed in slumber. It was taking him a while to readjust his perceptions of gender roles in this alien era; she wore pants, she swore and talked in an abrupt, brutally honest manner, she studied all sorts of crafts unsuitable for a young lady of her class, but she couldn't even clean a simple stain off the rug! She snored as well, he added to himself sourly.

But what right had he to judge his _zara_ when he was probably the worst djinn to ever emerge from the Immortal Realms?

He had betrayed his first master by not leaving Khajal after his kidnapping, and then he had betrayed his second master when he had. He had accumulated some regrettable human traits, such as a tendency to talk back. He...

His head was throbbing, each pulse sending a fresh tendril of pain snaking its way into his head. Guiltily, he checked to make sure that Alarda was asleep, then slid himself into the house spells, drawing on the power of the various charms to ease the pain. The spells were self-replicating, anyways; a few morsels of essence wouldn't be missed. Twice he encountered a spell that was linked to an electrical appliance, and he drew back from those with a hiss; despite what Alarda had told him to the contrary, there was something vicious in those sparks of non-magical power that made his hackles rise. This... electricity, it was too... He struggled for the right word and had to settle for "non-magical". Magic he knew. Magic was what he _was_. Oh, they'd had electricity way back when, of course, but it hadn't developed enough for it to be of any proper use, other than to do tasks that were beneath djinn anyways, such as providing light after dark and heating the water.

The wind from the open window felt good on his face, and he gratefully breathed in the cool air. Another unfortunate human-esque eccentricity, but it gave him the ability to smell, and he had a good memory for scents...

There it was again.

He opened one eye, half-raising himself up from his position on the rug, but retaining a portion of his essence locked into the house spells. He could draw upon them if he got into a jam, but he hoped that with his plan, he wouldn't have to fight at all.

The faint odor of spices drifted in through on the wind, and Sadi wrinkled his nose in disgust. Most people thought such a smell to be soothing, but he had always found it repulsive for reasons of his own. "So you found me... Fati."

He had to give her credit; she learned how to keep her calm over the last century, and not an eyelid twitched at the unfortunate nickname that one of their masters had given her in the 1800s, thinking it endearing. The old man, then-patriarch of the Mahjid family, had later died in bed under completely unsuspicious circumstances, but the fact that Fatima became the new head of the family's favorite djinn said it all. She knew just as well as he did that to kill a human and breaking one of the Eight would have... unpleasant consequences, outcomes that varied infinitely, but she had ways of furthering the demises of humans along that left her hands clean, and there were no rules about killing other djinn. "It's good to see you, Sadi," she purred, floating a few feet from the windowsill but not entering. Despite the gentle breeze, her white silken wraps remained immaculate and becomingly draped about her slender figure, not a strand of her white hair fluttered. She extended a silver-nailed hand beckoningly. "Just get the pendant and come with me. You won't be punished, and the girl won't be harmed."

"Just like nobody was harmed at the marketplace," Sadi countered. _By the Eight, she must think me a half-wit! As if it were that simple!_

"Oh, but that was an accident, darling. I wasn't trying to hurt her. I was merely told to pass a message along..."

"I can't," Sadi said bluntly, cutting her off. His stomach was twisted in knots. "You know why. Tell your master, whoever he is, that it's pointless."

"Oh, but _sweetie_, I can't do that either. I have my orders..." She drifted closer.

"Stop," Sadi hissed urgently. This was it.

She stopped, eyes widening innocently. "What? Why should I do that?"

"I'm no longer tied to the pendant," he said desperately, hoping that he wouldn't give himself away. "The roofmother fixed me to the house spells. If you enter this house, you enter my dwelling and break one of the Eight."

Her lips thinned, and she locked her silver eyes with his purple. The two djinn stayed there momentarily, motionless, then Fatima shrugged and sighed. "Very well. I shall return to the family and make my report. But believe me, Sadi: this is not over."


End file.
